February 28, 2017

If, as Trump claims, Obama is behind the protests. And if as Republicans claim, protesters are being paid. Then, doesn't that mean that Obama -- even out of office -- is still creating more jobs than Trump? ;-)

So here's my question: Do you agree with Donald Trump (your chosen candidate this past November) that the news media (including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and the New York Times) constitutes an "enemy of the people" of the United States?

I look forward to hearing back from you.

And I will be posting whatever response I get from him or his office.

UPDATE: As such there's been no response from Toomey's office regarding this letter or this one - but it's still early, so no big deal.

February 26, 2017

The globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for January 2017 was 0.88°C (1.58°F) above the 20th century average of 12.0°C (53.6°F). This was the third highest January temperature in the 1880–2017 record, behind 2016 (highest) and 2007 (second highest). Separately, the global land surface temperature was also third highest for the month of January at 1.54°C (2.77°F) above the 20th century average of 2.8°C (37.0°F).

Here's some visuals:

And now the Bullshit (from various Trump Administration incompetents):

Healthy debate is the lifeblood of American democracy, and global warming has inspired one of the major policy debates of our time. That debate is far from settled. Scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind. That debate should be encouraged — in classrooms, public forums, and the halls of Congress. It should not be silenced with threats of prosecution. Dissent is not a crime.

Yes, but fraud is. And that's what the lawsuit is actually about - as it's not about "dissent" but rather "misleading investors." In any event, (and do I really need to say this again?) when 97% of experts in the field have all reached the same conclusion (as is the case, here) we can honestly dispense with the "Scientists continue to disagree" bullshit. But not the current head of the EPA.

Rick Perry, currently candidate for to be Trump's Secretary of the Department of Energy. In his book, Fed Up! he called climate change a "contrived phony mess." That was seven years ago. Six years ago he made an astoundingly silly metaphor by placing himself next to Galileo:

“The science is not settled on [Climate Science]. The idea that we would put Americans’ economy at jeopardy based on scientific theory that’s not settled yet to me is just nonsense,” Perry said. “Just because you have a group of scientists who stood up and said here is the fact. Galileo got outvoted for a spell,” he said.

This is silly because Galileo was arguing against The Bible (the good book clearly says that the Sun moves around the Earth). This is not a scientific argument but a religious one. By the way, if you're a biblical literalist, you have to believe that it's been long settled that the Earth cannot be moved (Chronicles 13:30). In his job interview before the Senate, Perry did soften his science denial a tad, a scosh and a jot:

I believe the climate is changing. I believe some of it is naturally occurring, but some of it is also caused by man-made activity.

That's not exactly reiterating "a contrived phony mess" but it's not exactly in line with the science either. But then again, he's up for a Cabinet position. So you can judge that for whatever it's worth.

Meanwhile in reality, it's still getting warmer out there, humans are still to blame and it's not going to get any better with the oranged-faced pussy grabber (who called the science a hoax) in charge.

February 25, 2017

CNN's Jake Tapper said there's one word to describe the White House's decision to block several news organizations from a press briefing: "un-American."

CNN, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Politico and Buzzfeed were blocked from an off-camera press briefing Friday held by White House press secretary Sean Spicer just hours after President Donald Trump again said much of the press represents "the enemy of the people," this time during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

And:

"The Trump White House thinks it can punish reporters for sharing with you facts that they do not like," Tapper said.

"Make no mistake about what's happening here," Tapper continued. "A White House that has had some difficulty telling the truth and has seemed to have trouble getting up to speed on the competent functioning of government and a President who seems particularly averse to any criticism and has called the press the 'enemies of the American people,' they're taking the next step in avoiding checks and balances and accountability."

"For the record, 'fake news' refers to stories that are created, often by entities pretending to be news organizations, solely to draw clicks and views and are based on nothing of substance," Smith said during his program.

"In short, fake news is made up nonsense delivered for financial gain. CNN’s reporting was not fake news. Its journalists followed the same standards to which other news organizations, including Fox News, adhere," he added.

February 24, 2017

This evening, the Sierra Club projected a large missing person flier onto the wall of the Law and Finance Building downtown calling on Senator Toomey to stop avoiding his constituents and start listening to Pennsylvanians who are concerned about climate change and vital public health protections such as the Clean Air Act.

The display followed Senator Toomey’s recent vote to confirm Scott Pruitt as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), ignoring thousands of letters and calls from Pennsylvanians objecting to Pruitt’s history of suing the EPA and his deep financial ties to corporate polluters. Pruitt has taken nearly $350,000 in campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry and raised at least $3.5 million more from the industry while serving in the leadership of the Republican Attorneys General Association.

In advance of the event, missing person fliers of Senator Toomey were distributed to the surrounding area.

And the photographic the proof:

Photo Credit: Rachel Martin Golman

In case you can't read the writing on the wall, it goes like this:

MISSING
If found Pennsylvanians would like to talk to him about Scott Pruitt, climate change, and clean air protections.

CALL Senator Toomey at (412 803-5301 and ask him where he's hiding! #Wherestoomey

Senator Toomey needs to stop hiding from his constituents and start taking action to protect public health from pollution and climate change. President Trump has made it clear he plans to undermine the EPA and gut the Clean Air Act. Americans rely on the Environmental Protection Agency to safeguard our air, water and land. But as President Trump and his rigged Cabinet begin taking steps to gut such safeguards and advance a dirty energy agenda, Senator Toomey is nowhere to be found. Without Senator Toomey willing to speak out, the health of our families and communities is at stake.

Senator Toomey, your constituents are exercising their First Amendment rights to assemble peaceably and to petition their government (and in this case that means YOU) for a redress of grievances.

February 23, 2017

First let me congratulate Marie Schaub for standing up for the Constitution. That's the most important part of this story.

Let me also congratulate her for offending a Fox News snowflake named Todd Starnes. He wrote:

A Pennsylvania school district capitulated to the demands of a militant atheist who filed a federal lawsuit demanding the district remove a Ten Commandments monument erected on a public high school campus.

New Kensington-Arnold School District agreed to remove the massive monument within 30 days – ending a lawsuit filed in 2012 by self-avowed atheist Marie Schaub.

Schaub claimed the 6-foot stone monument erected outside Valley High School was a religious symbol and therefore was a violating of the U.S. Constitution.

Wow. She gets called an "atheist" twice before she's even identified by name. Nice and subtle on the religious bigotry, Todd.

But look at that third sentence. Does Todd Starnes think the 10 Commandments isn't a religious symbol? How can it not be? And since it simply isn't, the Supreme Court already said thirty seven years ago that:

the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments, purchased with private contributions, on the wall of each public school classroom in the State has no secular legislative purpose, and therefore is unconstitutional as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Todd's also not pleased with the school district for not fighting harder (after fighting for five years and losing $160,000).

But this is the most interesting part of Todd's tiny tantrum: he obviously hasn't done his homework on this.

Take a look at this attack on Schaub:

Schaub also claimed the monument was offensive to her and her daughter. I can only imagine which commandment she found to be most offensive. Maybe it was the one about graven images. [Emphasis added.]

It
is
our
information
and
understanding
that
a large
granite
monument
of
the
Ten
Commandments
is
prominently
displayed
at
Valley
High
School.
It
is
our
further
understanding
that
this
monument
sits
between
two
footpath
bridges
that
lead
from
the
parking
lot
over
a small
stream
to
the
main
entrance
of
the
school.
Because
of
the
numbering
and
missing
commandment
against
"graven
images,"
the
monument
contains
a historically
Roman
Catholic
version
of
the
Ten
Commandments. [Emphasis added.]

Aw snowflake, had you just gone with "keeping the sabbath holy" or "bearing false witness" no one (and I mean no one) would have known that you didn't do much research before writing this little screed of yours.

How embarrassing this must be for you. Tripped up by your own lack of proper research.

The Ten Commandments monument will be removed from Valley Junior-Senior High School, after district officials reached a settlement in a lawsuit claiming the district violated the constitutionally required separation of church and state.

They agreed that the unconstitutional monument within 30 days of February 15th - so by the Ides of March it'll be gone.

We've been talking about this for about five years. This is the letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) that started the lawsuit. Had the New Kensington School District followed the advice of the FFRF five years ago they would've saved themselves a whole mess of money:

Under the agreement to remove the monument, the school district's insurance company will pay $163,500 in legal fees, including more than $40,000 to the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

The pre-eminent purpose of posting the Ten Commandments, which do not confine themselves to arguably secular matters, is plainly religious in nature, and the posting serves no constitutional educational function.

A Kentucky statute requiring the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments, purchased with private contributions, on the wall of each public school classroom in the State has no secular legislative purpose, and therefore is unconstitutional as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

It's simply unconstitutional to post it at a public school and it should have come down five years ago.

February 21, 2017

It's me, again. Your constituent who also writes for the local Pittsburgh-based political blog, "2 Political Junkies."

This past week at a campaign rally in Florida, Donald Trump said this:

We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this. Sweden.

We all know by now that nothing happened in Sweden - nothing. Donald Trump said, publicly something that was demonstrably untrue. (When pushed, he tweeted that he was reacting to a story he'd seen on Fox news about immigration in that country. Even if that's the case, he still got it wrong as there was no event the previous evening in Sweden).

At his recent news conference, he claimed the largest electoral college victory since Ronald Reagan. Again something demonstrably untrue. And this was not a one-time thing. In mid-December, he falsely claimed a "massive" electoral" victory in the electoral college. Again, it's untrue.

He's claimed that there were between 3 and 5 million illegal votes cast in November, again demonstrably untrue.

Here's my question: Doesn't it at all concern you that the leader of the free world (and head of your political party, by the way) has, on numerous occasions, made public statements that are demonstrably untrue? We're not talking about differences of opinion here, there was no immigrant/terrorist incident that night in Sweden, he did not have the highest number of electoral votes since Ronald Reagan, the murder rate is not the highest its been in 47 years and there were not between 3 and 5 million illegal votes cast.

There are only two possibilities. He knows they're not true but he says them anyway (in which case he's lying on a massive scale) or he believes them to be true (in which case he must have a problem comprehending reality).

February 19, 2017

In case you missed it (and with current the Trump-shitstorm dissolving the republic, it would be easier-than-easy to do so) today is the 8th anniversary of this event:

Allegheny County Councilman Charles McCullough was arrested and arraigned today on nearly two dozen counts following an investigation last year of his handling of an elderly widow's trust funds.

A county grand jury today handed up a 52-page presentment that alleges Mr. McCullough, an attorney, and his sister, Kathleen A. McCullough, bilked money from the $14.5 million trust fund of an Upper St. Clair widow, Shirley H. Jordan, 90.

The investigation began after an article appeared in the Post-Gazette in April 2007 in which Mrs. Jordan denied that she donated $10,000 to each of four political candidates the year before, according to an affidavit that accompanied the arrests of Mr. McCullough and his sister.

That means that It's been exactly 8 years to the day, since he was arrested. It's now officially longer than any non-FDR presidency. I'll put it
another way, the time between Chuck McCullough's arrest and the time he
starts the jail sentence for which he was found guilty will be longer than
the time Barack Obama (or George W. Bush or Bill Clinton or Ronald
Reagan) were President of the United States. Something to ponder.

In the intervening 2,922 days these events have occurred:

His trial began on April 13, 2015. That's only 2,245 days since he was arrested. By the way the trial began 8 years and one day since Roddy's piece in the P-G.

He was found guilty on July 31, 2015. That's only 2,353 days since he was arrested and only 570 days ago.

Between his conviction and his sentencing, McCullough sought to have the theft case's presiding judge, Lester Nauhaus, recuse himself because McCullough said the judge improperly passed a message to McCullough's attorney urging him to waive his right to a jury trial.

Prosecutors said that and other statements McCullough made in his motion for recusal contradicted his statement under oath that no one threatened or coerced him to waive a jury in favor of a bench trial.

Basically, after the non-jury trial was done, he said he took a judge-only trial because he feared repercussions from judge Nauhaus if he didn't. On the other hand, he said under oath that no one threatened or coerced him into taking the judge-only trial. And so (still from The Trib):

The District Attorney's Office charged McCullough in November with two counts each of perjury, false swearing and obstruction of justice, along with one count of unsworn falsification.

So now there's a perjury case while McCullough appeals his conviction that came after his arrest 8 years ago. The perjury case is set to start 5 days after the end of his Superior Court appeal.

The only problem is found in the Trib's last sentence:

The Superior Court has not set a date for arguments in McCullough's appeal.

That was May 19, 2016 (that's only 276 days ago) and nothing's been reported since - nor has Chuck started his 2 1⁄2 to five year sentence.

So what do you say to someone for their 8 year anniversary of an an arrest that lead to a conviction and sentencing for a prison term that's still hasn't begun?

Considering what Chuck was found guilty of, I'd go with this: Happy Anniversary Chuck, may you get an attorney just like you to be your Power-Of-Attorney when you get old.

February 18, 2017

What would von Kleist’s generation say if they saw our world today? I fear that much about it would be all-too-familiar to them, and they would be alarmed by it.

They would be alarmed by an increasing turn away from universal values and toward old ties of blood, and race, and sectarianism.

They would be alarmed by the hardening resentment we see toward immigrants, and refugees, and minority groups, especially Muslims.

They would be alarmed by the growing inability, and even unwillingness, to separate truth from lies.

They would be alarmed that more and more of our fellow citizens seem to be flirting with authoritarianism and romanticizing it as our moral equivalent.

The "von Kleinst" in the first sentence would be Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin (1922-2013). BTW, he was the last surviving survivor of the 1944 plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler. He first convened the what was to become the Munich Security Conference way back in 1963. From the MSC website:

Over the past five decades, the Munich Security Conference (MSC) has become the major global forum for the discussion of security policy. Each February, it brings together more than 450 senior decision-makers from around the world, including heads-of-state, ministers, leading personalities of international and non-governmental organizations, as well as high ranking representatives of industry, media, academia, and civil society, to engage in an intensive debate on current and future security challenges.

That's the setting for McCain's defense of the west and not-so-subtle criticism of the unnamed Trump.

As for the inability and unwillingness to separate truth from falsehood, we heard more than a few examples at Trump's press conference. I'll leave it to the professionals to fact-check The Little-Handed Pussy-Grabber:

Mr. Trump won 306 Electoral College votes (and ended
up with 304 officially), well above the threshold needed to secure the
presidency but well behind several of his most recent predecessors.
President Barack Obama won 332 Electoral College votes in 2012 and 365
four years earlier. President Bill Clinton received 370 Electoral
College votes in 1992 and 379 in 1996. And President George Bush won 426
Electoral College votes in 1988.

When a reporter pressed Mr. Trump on the claim, he laid the blame elsewhere. “I was given that information,” he said.

Mostly False: Hillary Clinton gave Russia 20 percent of the United States’ uranium

Trump said he will be in a better position to work with Russia than Hillary Clinton would have been, based on her record as secretary of state.

"We had Hillary Clinton try and do a reset," he said. "We had Hillary Clinton give Russia 20 percent of the uranium in our country. You know what uranium is, right?"

Trump made this claim during the election, and we rated it Mostly False.

This is a reference to the fact that Russia’s nuclear power agency bought a controlling interest in a Toronto-based company. That company has mines, mills and tracts of land in Wyoming, Utah and other U.S. states that amount to about 20 percent of U.S. uranium production capacity (not produced uranium). Clinton was secretary of state at the time, but she didn’t have the power to approve or reject the deal.

“Russia is a ruse. I have nothing to do with Russia. Haven’t made a phone call to Russia in years. Don’t speak to people from Russia.”

The Wall Street Journal reported during the campaign that before Trump gave a foreign-policy speech in April, he met with the Russian ambassador: “A few minutes before he made those remarks [calling for improved relations with Russia], Mr. Trump met at a VIP reception with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Ivanovich Kislyak. Mr. Trump warmly greeted Mr. Kislyak and three other foreign ambassadors who came to the reception.”

In response to a question Thursday about threats to Jewish centers nationwide, President Donald Trump called a Jewish reporter a liar, told him to sit down and later said anti-Semitism was coming from "the other side."

The exchange kicked off as Trump looked through the room at a White House news conference and asked for a question from a "friendly reporter."

Over the course of the lengthy and bizarre news conference that President Trump held Thursday, few moments crystallized the unusual nature of his presidency as effectively as an exchange he had at the end with April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks.

Ryan asked Trump if he would include the CBC in discussions about his agenda for addressing urban policy. The CBC, for those unaware, is the Congressional Black Caucus, a group of African American legislators that is often a leading voice on the Hill for issues dealing with the black community. Trump appeared briefly to be unaware of what the initials stood for, and so Ryan asked more pointedly.

“Am I going to include who?” he asked.

“Are you going to include the Congressional Black Caucus,” Ryan, who is black, asked, “and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus as well as …?”

“Well, I would,” Trump interrupted. “Tell you what, do you want to set up the meeting? Do you want to set up the meeting? Are they friends of yours? Set up a meeting.”

And let's all remember his take on the reporting about this White House:

The leaks are real. The leaks are absolutely real. The news is fake because so much of the news is fake.

February 16, 2017

A few days ago this came across my Facebook feed. It's from Congressman Mike Doyle (I live in the legislative district he represents in the House):

The American People deserve an independent investigation into President Trump’s National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s pre-inauguration phone calls with the Russian ambassador. General Flynn had to resign; he clearly had become a potential Russian blackmail target. It’s hard to believe, however, that he would discuss the future of US sanctions without authorization - so Americans still need to know what the President and Vice President knew, and when they knew it. Flynn’s resignation is not a substitute for answers, which is why I’ve cosponsored HR 356, a bill to create a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the extent of the Russian government’s influence on the Trump White House and presidential campaign.

The bill looks to establish a commission that will investigate "the Russian government, persons or entities associated with the Russian
government, or persons or entities within Russia to use electronic means
to influence, interfere with, or sow distrust in elections for public
office held in the United States in 2016" by way of hacking, propaganda and so on.

The bill was introduced on January 6, 2017 - more than a month ago.

Now that Mike Flynn's resignation following reporting that he lied about his contacts with Russia after the election but before the inauguration, it's become all that more important to for there to be a bipartisan Congressional investigation into whatever Russian intelligence was doing before during and after the November elections.

The bill has been referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. You may remember them, they plowed through piles of taxpayer money in a Benghazi! investigation.

Let's see if they have a similar level of outrage for Russian interference in an election that gave the little-handed pussy grabber the Oval Office.

February 15, 2017

Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former American officials.

When President Donald Trump was asked Friday to weigh in on a Washington Post report that his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had discussed sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. prior to the inauguration, the president claimed he was unaware of the news.

“I don’t know about that. I haven’t seen it. What report is that? I haven’t seen that. I’ll look into that,” Trump said on Feb. 10, according to a White House pool report.

But White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said on Monday that the president knew about Flynn’s communication with Russia for weeks. When Trump said, “I don’t know about that,” he simply meant he didn’t know about the Washington Post report specifically, Spicer claimed.

“We’ve been reviewing and evaluating this issue with respect to General Flynn on a daily basis for a few weeks, trying to ascertain the truth,” Spicer said during a daily press briefing.

What Trump and his team have failed to explain in detail is why it took a “few weeks.”

Hours after national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned amid reports that he misled top officials about his pre-inauguration talks with the Russian ambassador, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to encourage everyone to move on. “The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington?” he tweeted out Tuesday morning.

In a sense, Trump is right: The real story is not Flynn. But it isn’t government leaks, either. No, the “real story here” is Trump himself—and the continuing mystery of his ties to Russia.

As official Washington and the press home in on the permanent disarray in the White House, whether the disgraced Flynn broke the law and who will succeed him after his three-week tenure, the key question is getting lost in the shuffle: Who told Flynn to call Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States? Because I’m convinced Flynn didn’t do it of his own accord. Flynn is a bit player in a much larger story regarding the president’s relationship with the Kremlin, and it’s this story the press needs to focus on.

What did the little-handed pussy grabber know and when did the little-handed pussy grabber know it?

This. Is. Not. Normal. @realDonaldTrump owes Americans a full account of his Admin’s dealings with Russia, both before & after the election.

February 14, 2017

I blog at the local Pittsburgh blog, "2 Political Junkies." As I reside in Pennsylvania, and as you are one of Pennsylvania's two Senators, I am a constituent of yours.

As your constituent, I have a question to ask you. I've posted the text of this letter on the blog and I'm planning on posting your response there as well.

Recently on "Face The Nation" Senior White House policy adviser Stephen Miller had this exchange with host John Dickerson. When asked whether the administration had "learned anything" from their experience with the immigration executive order, he replied:

Well, I think that it’s been an important reminder to all Americans that we have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become in many case a supreme branch of government. One unelected judge in Seattle cannot remake laws for the entire country. I mean this is just crazy, John, the idea that you have a judge in Seattle say that a foreign national living in Libya has an effective right to enter the United States is -- is -- is beyond anything we’ve ever seen before.

The end result of this, though, is that our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned. [Emphasis added.]

Senator, do you think he's correct? Given the fact that our Constitution defines three equal branches of government does the president have unquestionable power when it comes to national defense?

Or do you believe that there is judicial and legislative oversight that serves as a check and balance to the president's authority, whatever it is?

February 13, 2017

White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller appeared on ABC’s “The Week” on Sunday, spouting a bunch of false talking points on alleged voter fraud. (He also repeated similar claims on other Sunday talk shows.) To his credit, host George Stephanopoulus repeatedly challenged Miller, noting that he had provided no evidence to support his claims. But Miller charged ahead, using the word “fact” three times in a vain effort to bolster his position.

And the Intelligence Community is withholding material from Trump because they don't trust him. Furthermore:

What’s going on was explained lucidly by a senior Pentagon intelligence official, who stated that “since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM,” meaning the White House Situation Room, the 5,500 square-foot conference room in the West Wing where the president and his top staffers get intelligence briefings. “There’s not much the Russians don’t know at this point,” the official added in wry frustration.

February 12, 2017

A whistleblower's claim that data were manipulated to show global warming's 1998-2013 “pause” didn't happen — and the reaction to it — demonstrate that climate science is anything but “settled.”

John Bates retired last year as the National Climatic Data Center's principal scientist and had been responsible for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's climate archive. He accused Thomas Karl, a former NOAA official and lead author of NOAA's 2015 “pausebuster” report, of trying to “discredit” the 1998-2013 warming pause by manipulating data and rushing the report's publication in advance of December 2015's United Nations climate summit in Paris, according to The Washington Times.

Yea, except that once we get to the actual science, we'll see the braintrust's deception. (Spoiler Alert: It's a deception by omission)

Much study has been devoted to the possible causes of an apparent decrease in the upward trend of global surface temperatures since 1998, a phenomenon that has been dubbed the global warming “hiatus.” Here, we present an updated global surface temperature analysis that reveals that global trends are higher than those reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, especially in recent decades, and that the central estimate for the rate of warming during the first 15 years of the 21st century is at least as great as the last half of the 20th century. These results do not support the notion of a “slowdown” in the increase of global surface temperature.

And finally:

Newly corrected and updated global surface temperature data from NOAA’s NCEI do not support the notion of a global warming “hiatus.” As shown in Fig. 1, there is no discernable (statistical or otherwise) decrease in the rate of warming between the second half of the 20th century and the first 15 years of the 21st century. Our new analysis now shows that the trend over the period 1950–1999, a time widely agreed as having significant anthropogenic global warming, is 0.113°C decade−1, which is virtually indistinguishable from the trend over the period 2000–2014 (0.116°C decade−1). Even starting a trend calculation with 1998, the extremely warm El Niño year that is often used as the beginning of the “hiatus,” our global temperature trend (1998–2014) is 0.106°C decade−1—and we know that is an underestimate because of incomplete coverage over the Arctic. Indeed, according to our new analysis, the IPCC’s statement of 2 years ago—that the global surface temperature “has shown a much smaller increasing linear trend over the past 15 years than over the past 30 to 60 years”—is no longer valid.

What does make science "valid" is if it's verified independently. So we can now ask, has Karl actually been verified? If he has been, then the idea that he's presenting something false goes out the window.

In an article in today’s Mail on Sunday, David Rose makes the extraordinary claim that “world leaders were duped into investing billions over manipulated global warming data”, accusing the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of manipulating the data to show more warming in a 2015 study by Tom Karl and coauthors.

What he fails to mention is that the new NOAA results have been validated by independent data from satellites, buoys and Argo floats and that many other independent groups, including Berkeley Earth and the UK’s Met Office Hadley Centre, get effectively the same results.

But let's get back to the idea that Karl "manipulated" (Remember: the Braintrust used that word specifically) the data has also been debunked by a very prominent player in this discussion: John Bates.

The federal climate scientist hailed by conservatives as a whistleblower for allegedly revealing manipulated global warming data said yesterday he was actually calling out a former colleague for not properly following agency standards for research.

In an interview with E&E News yesterday, former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration principal scientist John Bates had a significantly more nuanced take on the controversy that has swirled since a top House Republican hailed his blog post as proof that the agency "played fast and loose" with temperature data to disprove the theory of a global warming "pause."

Bates accused former colleagues of rushing their research to publication, in defiance of agency protocol. He specified that he did not believe that they manipulated the data upon which the research relied in any way.

"The issue here is not an issue of tampering with data, but rather really of timing of a release of a paper that had not properly disclosed everything it was," he said. [Emphasis added.]

And as to the timing of the paper (this is from the same E&E News piece):

Whether the research was published to influence the Paris climate talks is a moot point, said Andrew Light, a senior member of the State Department's climate talks negotiating team in 2015. He said the talks had already been underway for about four years when the paper was published and that 188 nations were relying on a tremendous amount of research to support their goal of reducing humans' carbon emissions to slow the warming of the planet. They had also already crafted proposed reductions by the time the research was published, he said.

"I never heard it discussed once, let alone this one NOAA report, discussed in Paris, the run-up to Paris or anything after Paris, so this is really just an incredibly bizarre claim," Light said.

So the science has been verified and it had no effect on the Paris climate talks. So what was the braintrust saying? What was it that they were presenting as factual to its readership? How much of it has been debunked by reality?

February 10, 2017

I haven't written about State Representative Rick Saccone for a while. There's just been too many other things to write about, what with a little-handed pussy grabber inhabiting the office once occupied by Franklin Roosevelt, JFK, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.

A state representative from Allegheny County has filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission signalling a run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Robert Casey Jr.

Rep. Rick Saccone, a Republican from Elizabeth, told PennLive Thursday he will formally announce his bid later this month. He becomes the first candidate to take official steps to challenge Casey, who will be up for a third term in 2018.

"I thought our country was going in the wrong direction, and I was going to step up and do something about it," Saccone said. "I want to be there to help our new president secure the agenda that our people voted for."

"Our people" Rick? Who do you mean by "our people"?

Before we begin to ponder who Rick is referencing there, let's remind everyone of the some of the times Rick showed up on this blog:

January 28, 2012 - Rick introduced legislation making 2012 "The Year Of The Bible."

October 27, 2013 - Rick proposed a bill requiring Pennsylvania public schools to post "In God We Trust" on every school building.

Neither passes constitutional muster, by the way. That old First Amendment establishment clause and what not.

As I wrote in 2012, Rick's also a cosponsor of an anti-Sharia law law. And so this means that:I guess this means that faith written into legislation is acceptable if it's the good faith, unacceptable if it's the bad faith.

If you support women's reproductive health and rights, then please don't go to Planned Parenthood tomorrow (unless of course you have an appointment). On Saturday, there are planned protests occurring outside of Planned Parenthood offices nationwide -- including here in Pittsburgh.

Adrienne Verrilli, Associate Vice President of Communications at Planned Parenthood of New York City told The Huffington Post on Tuesday that too many cooks in the kitchen can be really detrimental to a patient’s experience ― and the patient’s experience is their ultimate priority.

“Our goal is making sure our patients are comfortable,” she said. “The quieter it is outside, and the less people are engaging with each other, the better it is for our patients.” ...

When counter-protestors are present, patients don’t see them as helpful, Verrilli said, “they just see chaos.”

Planned Parenthood of Western PA is in agreement: They do not want counter protesters.

Unfortunately, there is a counter protest planned.

A Facebook event was set up for the counter protest by a group of three men and two women, with the International Socialist Organization - Pittsburgh later added as a sponsor.

Their event page garnered hundreds of comments from women and Planned Parenthood asking, imploring, and literally begging them to reconsider. The pleas were met with complete resistance -- primarily by two of the men who set up the page. Via Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents:

This is what what my friend Jodi Hirsh calls ‘the ultimate mansplain.’ I am reposting my own comments from Facebook with regard to the intent of a group of self-identified Socialists to organize a counterprotest in support of abortion rights, but IN SPITE of the wishes and experiences of Planned Parenthood, clinic escorts, patients and pro-choice activists across the region.

This is not okay. A group of 3 men and 2 white women are organizing an event to defend choice in spite of the vehement opposition of Planned Parenthood, clinic escorts, patients and more.

This counter-protest threatens our safe access to PP clinics. It shows disregard for the leadership of women and the experiences of women. It flies in the face of logic.

But mostly it says that these men do not trust Planned Parenthood and do not trust women. They are taking action on our behalf much like all of the Republican men who sign anti-choice legislation do. Their opinions matter more than anything else.

Listen to women, socialists. Listen to women and demonstrate the capacity to model political resistance where men center women’s experiences instead of their own.

I'd link to that event page, but it was deleted by the sponsors and replaced by a new one sponsored solely by theInternational Socialist Organization and where no commenting is allowed.

And, in one more act of ignoring the reality of the situation, the cover photo on the new event page is actually taken from a rally in support of Muslims which took place in Denver (13th photo in the slideshow here) -- nothing whatsoever to do with women's reproductive rights. But I guess, they figure the 'look' was right. Just like they like the idea of a counter protest and the sound of their own voices -- however counterproductive that is in reality in this case.

If you could see their original counter protest page, you would see that Planned Parenthood tried to work with them. For example, suggesting that they protest at PP's Greensburg office which is closed for the day (so no patients to upset), or protesting outside of "crisis pregnancy centers" (fake clinics run by people who are anti-abortion). Planned Parenthood even set up their own event people could attend to demonstrate their support, but to no avail.

So, if you do want to support Planned Parenthood, again, please do not go to the counter protest in Pittsburgh.

Instead, join them at their I Stand With Planned Parenthood Celebration and avoid both the rabid forced birthers and the unhelpful mansplainers. The irony of supposed supporters doing the exact opposite of what the group they say they're supporting is beyond rich. And, it's no way to be a real ally.

And by doing so, majority Republicans just handed the liberal firebrand a megaphone -- further elevating President Donald Trump's fiercest and most prominent critic in the Senate and turning her into a Democratic hero.

Incidentally, when she was stopped by McConnell, she was saying this of Senator Sessions:

IN 2013, SENATOR SESSIONS VOTED AGAINST REAUTHORIZING THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT, A ABOUT I WILL THAT EXPANDED THE PROTECTIONS AND SERVICES PROVIDED TO VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. THERE'S A PIECE FROM THE BEDFORD MINUTEMAN THAT REALLY TELLS THE STORY OF HOW SEXUAL VIOLENCE IMPACTS MASSACHUSETTS. AND THIS IS WHAT IT SAID. "THEY ARE MOTHERS, DAUGHTERS, SISTERS, FATHERS, SONS, AND BROTHERS - "[Capitalization in the C-Span original. This is at 49:24]

In 1986, Coretta Scott King wrote a letter in opposition to Jeff Sessions’ nomination to become a federal judge. It criticized Mr. Sessions’s record on civil rights and said that elevating him to higher office would demean the record of Mrs. King’s husband, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The letter resurfaced last month, when BuzzFeed News reported that Senator Strom Thurmond, a Republican from South Carolina who was then the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, had failed to enter it into the Congressional Record. On the same day as BuzzFeed’s report, The Washington Post obtained the letter and published it online.

So I guess that King was herself silenced by another southern Senator a few decades ago. Huh. Go figure. I mean what are the odds??

Anyway, after Senator Warren got herself Southern-mansplained by a proper Kentucky gentlemen, the Senate took a vote on whether she'd be "permitted" to continue.
The vote went party line with our own Senator Pat Toomey voting to stop
Senator Elizabeth Warren from reading a letter from Coretta Scott King
about Senator Jeff Sessions' past record on civil rights - and this took place during Black History Month.

Let me rephrase: A letter from Coretta Scott King, silenced by buried by
Strom Thurmond 30 years ago only to be silenced again (with your help)
during Black History Month.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, said in the hearing that DeVos and her husband have contributed to the Thomas More Law Center, which represented the Dover Area School District in a 2005 lawsuit over the district's inclusion of intelligent design in biology class. Intelligent design is the idea that life is so complex it must have had an "intelligent designer." Ultimately, a federal judge ruled against the district.

"The 's' in STEM … is science," Whitehouse said, according to C-SPAN video of the hearing. "If school districts around the country try to teach students junk science, will the Department of Education be with the students or with the political entities trying to force junk science into the science program."

When she could have (should have) disavowed any inkling of "junk science" seeping into the nation's science curriculum, she didn't. Her answer, instead, contained subtle nod to creationists everywhere:

"I think it’s pretty clear the expectation is science is taught in public schools, and I support the teaching of great science," DeVos said to the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. "Especially science that allows students to exercise critical thinking and really discover and examine in new ways. Science is to be supported at all levels." [Emphasis added.]

At a confirmation hearing earlier this month, Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s pick for education secretary, responded to a question about whether she would promote “junk science” by saying she supports science teaching that “allows students to exercise critical thinking.”

This seemingly innocuous statement has raised alarms among science education advocates, and buoyed the hopes of conservative Christian groups that, if confirmed, DeVos may use her bully pulpit atop the U.S. Department of Education to undermine the teaching of evolution in public schools.

DeVos and her family have poured millions of dollars into groups that champion intelligent design, the doctrine that the complexity of biological life can best be explained by the existence of a creator rather than by Darwinian evolution. Within this movement, “critical thinking” has become a code phrase to justify teaching of intelligent design.

February 7, 2017

I'm not sure if you caught this piece from Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush (Boo!) of the New York Times. It starts with this:

President Trump loves to set the day’s narrative at dawn, but the deeper story of his White House is best told at night.

Aides confer in the dark because they cannot figure out how to operate the light switches in the cabinet room. Visitors conclude their meetings and then wander around, testing doorknobs until finding one that leads to an exit. In a darkened, mostly empty West Wing, Mr. Trump’s provocative chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, finishes another 16-hour day planning new lines of attack.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to talk about is found about seven paragraphs later. It's this:

Chris Ruddy, the chief executive of Newsmax Media and an old friend of the president’s, said: “I think, in his mind, the success of this is going to be the poll numbers. If they continue to be weak or go lower, then somebody’s going to have to bear some responsibility for that.”

“I personally think that they’re missing the big picture here,” Mr. Ruddy said of Mr. Trump’s staff. “Now he’s so caught up, the administration is so caught up in turmoil, perceived chaos, that the Democrats smell blood, the protesters, the media smell blood.”

"Most of the people around him are new to him. One of the things they don't understand about him is he likes pushback. They are not giving him the pushback he needs when he's giving advice. He's a strong guy. He's intimidating to a lot of people," said Christopher Ruddy, a Trump friend who talks to him often and is the CEO of Newsmax. "If he doesn't have people who can tell him no, this is not going to go very well."

Now you have to see it.

This is about Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax and "old friend" of Donald Trump's.

This is the same Christopher Ruddy who wrote "The Strange Death Of Vince Foster." A conspiracy theory tell all that implicated Bill and Hillary Clinton in the death of Vince Foster, even though official investigations (including the Starr Investigation) all concluded it was a suicide. Of Kenneth Starr (remember him?), Christopher Ruddy is quoted as saying that he was "a patsy for the Clintonites."

Christopher Ruddy reported a number of completely untrue things; that the Clintons killed Vince Foster, that the Park Police staged the scene of Foster's death, that the White House covered it up and that Kenneth Starr was a patsy for the Clintonites.

February 6, 2017

In posting about the First Amendment yesterday,The Other Political Junkie included video of SNL's hilarious cold open, but this blog would be remiss if we did not also mention that episode's 'second cold open.' Melissa McCarthy was simply brilliant as Press Secretary Sean Spicer. McCarthy's physical comedy combined with the spot-on take of the absurdity and sore-winner-anger of the Trump propaganda machine is TO DIE FOR! "Your word!"

From the campaign trail to the White House, the Trump administration has generally shown a lack of concern for human-caused climate change, at best — and, at worst, disbelief in its existence. And it seems that many Trump voters share these views as well.

Just 25 percent of people who voted for Donald Trump believe climate change is occurring now and is caused by human activity, according to a recent survey by researchers from the University of New Hampshire.

But I mean, if they can believe without evidence that between 3-5 million illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton last November or that the crowd at Trump's inauguration was the largest ever or that he will get Mexico to pay for his stupid wall, then it's not that out of place for them to believe in the science of climate change.

February 5, 2017

Quick, before it's erased by an unchallenged-by-his-bullied-GOP Trump Executive Order that would read something like this:

If public security and order are seriously disturbed or endangered within the Homeland, the President may take measures necessary for their restoration, intervening if need be with the assistance of the armed forces. For this purpose he may suspend for a while, in whole or in part, the fundamental rights described by the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights...

Let's take a minute to remember the amendment that guarantees our freedom of speech:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

And celebrate this bit of protected Trump bashing that's sure to upset the little-handed pussy grabber.

February 4, 2017

It's what they're trying to do, and I get livid when people respond with "wahh wah you're minimizing the real episodes of ethnic cleansing in history." No, I'm doing my best to put a stop to yet another incident. They want all the brown people out, especially but not just Muslims, and they'll use whatever authority they can to do it. They didn't just prevent new people from coming in, they tried to prevent legal long term residents (green card holders) from returning. They've revoked who knows how many existing student and H1-B visas. Again, not just new arrivals or even people trying to re-enter, but revoking the legal status of people already here - people who have invested time and money in education and careers. Those people can be declared in violation, and even if they aren't being deported momentarily, they will be unable to return due for years or ever due to visa violation they weren't even aware they had made. Employers will have workers who have no right to work here - again, unknown to them. Families will continue to be ripped apart.

Donald, it's part of a system we like to call (and perhaps that should have been posited in the past tense) a system of checks and balances. You see there are THREE (not just one!) branches of Government as defined by The Constitution. You're sitting at the top of JUST ONE of them - the Executive Branch. Then there's the GOP-controlled Congress (made up of two bodies, the House and the Senate) - that's the Legislative Branch. They make the laws and you implement them.

Since you seemingly have bullied them into submission, it might LOOK to you like you control everything. But you don't. Not everything.

It's THE THIRD branch, The Judiciary, that decides if the actions of the first to are in agreement with The Constitution (remember the Constitution? I guess you haven't read it since Khizr Khan offered you his copy, Sad!). If an action is in agreement with the Constitution, then fine. It continues. If it doesn't, then it can't continue. That's how this halt on your immigration ban came to be.

It's a function of the system of checks and balances of the three equal branches. Did you know that, Donald? Did you know that there are three equal branches of constitutional authority? Hasn't anyone ever told you that? Were you listening when they did or were you thinking of grabbing some pussies and you missed it.

In a constitutional democracy/republic every one has to play by the constitutional rules, Donald. Even you.

Freedom of religion is a sacred right, but it is also a right under threat all around us, and the world is under serious, serious threat in so many different ways.

And then listing some religiously based atrocities ("peace-loving Muslims brutalized" by ISIS, the Holocaust, Muslim on Christian violence), he said this:

All nations have a moral obligation to speak out against such violence. All nations have a duty to work together to confront it and to confront it viciously, if we have to. So I want to express clearly today to the American people that my administration will do everything in its power to defend and protect religious liberty in our land. America must forever remain a tolerant society where all faiths are respected, and where all of our citizens can feel safe and secure.

Which is odd for a man who almost as recently called for a "Muslim ban."

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) said in an interview on Saturday that President Trump had previously asked him about legally implementing a "Muslim ban."

But Giuliani then disputed the notion that the president's sweeping executive order barring refugees and people from seven predominantly Muslim nations amounts to a ban on Muslims.

"I’ll tell you the whole history of it: When he first announced it, he said ‘Muslim ban,'" Giuliani said on Fox News.

"He called me up, he said, ‘Put a commission together, show me the right way to do it legally.’"

This is also the crowd that gives us, regularly, "alternative facts" so even when they're "correcting" themselves, they're obfuscating. Take a look at this from Salon:

It is a fact that President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Friday banning Muslim immigration to the United States — and an “alternative fact” to claim that it isn’t.

Although White House press secretary Sean Spicer insisted on Tuesday that Trump “has made it very clear that this is not a Muslim ban,” CNN’s Jake Tapper played a clip of Spicer using the term “ban” during a Sunday interview with ABC.

“It is a 90 day ban to ensure that we have further vetting restrictions so that we know who’s coming to this country,” Spicer had said.

Tapper also pointed out that Spicer referred to Trump’s policy as a “ban” during an event at George Washington University on Monday.

“The ban deals with seven countries that the Obama administration had previously identified as needing further travel restrictions,” Spicer had said. Spicer’s claim that Trump is merely following a policy started by then-President Barack Obama is also a debunked “alternative fact.”

So freedom of religion is a right - except when Donald Trump thinks you're a dangerous Muslim.

And speaking of "alternative facts" did you know that there was a massacre in Bowling Green Kentucky during the Obama Administration that no one reported about? Seems that these two mewz-lims snuck into the Homeland during President Obama's six month ban on mewz-lims and killed a whole mess'o people and the liberal media didn't report on it. At all.

During an appearance on Chris Matthews’ “Hardball” on Thursday night, Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager and now an adviser in his administration, appeared to make up a fictional “massacre” when justifying the President’s ban on refugees and immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries.

“I bet it’s brand new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre,” Conway said during an exchange on the program. “Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered.”

The media didn’t cover the Bowling Green Massacre because no such event ever happened.

A phone call between President Trump and the Australian prime minister is threatening to develop into a diplomatic rift between two stalwart allies after the two men exchanged harsh words over refugee policy, and Mr. Trump abruptly ended the call.

The phone call last Saturday between Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull turned contentious after the Australian leader pressed the president to honor an agreement to accept 1,250 refugees from an Australian detention center.

Late Wednesday night, Mr. Trump reiterated his anger over the agreement on Twitter. He called the agreement a “dumb deal” and blamed the Obama administration for accepting it but then said that he would “study” it. The tweet was posted after The Washington Post reported details of the phone call.

On the other hand, The Guardian says:

On Sunday, a phone call between Turnbull and Trump took place. Turnbull maintains that, during the call, Trump committed to honouring the refugee resettlement deal. That was later confirmed by the US state department and US embassy in Canberra. But a report in the Washington Post cast the Trump-Turnbull conversation in an entirely different light. It was reported that Trump had described the deal as “the worst deal ever” and complained that Australia was trying to send the US the “next Boston bombers”. Trump poured petrol on the fire by later tweeting: “Do you believe it? The Obama administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!”

Though it ends by casting doubt - saying the deal is an "unlikely prospect."

And remember, Australia is our ally. Australia, along with the US, Canada, New Zealand and the UK make up the so called "Five Eyes" global surveillance group that's been snooping in our collective cache files for decades. Trump's looking to bully them?

All for what? An unconstitutional, immoral, cruel and xenophobic policy shit out with little or no forethought of its consequences.

Tonight we want to add our voices to the thousands of Americans who are protesting in airports around our country. The Muslim ban, the detention of foreign nationals and refugees — America is a nation of immigrants and we find this antidemocratic and fundamentally un-American.

He then played this song, originally written during the Seeger Sessions, though released a few years later in 2012:

I hope I'm not overstepping by bounds here but I'd add that "antidemocratic and fundamentally un-American" is a good description of Donald Trump, his presidency and all the enablers in the GOP who once denounced him but are now on board with his racism, bigotry and sexism.